Experimental Investigation of the PMEDM of Nickel Free Austenitic Stainless Steel: A Promising Coronary Stent Material

A new composition of Taguchi and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) in combination with principal component analysis (PCA) has been explored. A series of experiments were performed in order to acquire an optimal parametric combination during powder mixed electro-discharge machining (PMEDM) of nickel free austenitic stainless steel. Peak current, pulse on time and powder concentration were selected as three process variables, whereas the material removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate (TWR) and over cut (OC) were the major attention. Domain of the investigation was adopted from Taguchi based L-16 orthogonal array. The outcomes of the experiment were optimized using TOPSIS method whereas PCA technique was employed to determine the weightage of each response. Response table for S/N ratio was drawn to identify the most influencing machining parameter. Results of the investigation indicated that, peak current was the most effective machining variable followed by pulse on time and powder concentration. The proposed amalgamation of PCA-TOPSIS method was observed to be robust, easily understandable, time saving and modest approach which can help the decision maker to identify an optimal parametric combination with desirable accuracy.